Canadian Unclaimed Property Challenges – And How to Navigate Them

Let’s face it: The holidays are a blur of closing out the year and celebrations, and the last thing on anyone’s mind are those reporting and escheatment deadlines at the end of the fiscal year and the spring. But if you’re in Alberta, British Columbia or Quebec, those deadlines are important for your organization.

Unclaimed Property programs in Canada are similar to those in the United States in that they’re constantly changing, developing and adapting with new legislation and other amendments. And if you’re doing business across state, or in this case, province lines it can be tricky to keep track of the variations from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

And while these programs may only exist in a few provinces, the Uniform Unclaimed Intangible Property Act (UUIPA) established by the Uniform Law Conference of Canada states that each province can choose how much or how little of the programs to enact – meaning the programs are even more transient across the country, too.

Tracking potentially hundreds or thousands of unclaimed property records can be tedious and manual – not to mention incredibly error-prone. And a certain standard of excellence is expected in the reports submitted, demanding accuracy and truthfulness in your reporting.

The bottom line is the Canadian unclaimed property arena is hard to navigate by yourself and those deadlines are quickly approaching. Wouldn’t you rather spend the end of the year celebrating your company’s accomplishments and focusing on a great fourth quarter? An Unclaimed Property Compliance solution – like Trintech’s UPCS® – can make that happen.

An automated Unclaimed Property solution tracks the varying legislation and makes sure that you’re complying with the varying reporting standards. And in each province that allows electronic filing (Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec), UPCS puts it in the exact format it needs to be in for streamlined reporting.

So, this holiday season get yourself the gift of a headache-free reporting season and learn more about the many pain points an automated unclaimed property solution can address.